Tag Archives: Art Instruction

From June 3rd– 7th Deidre Clark, Kuumba Community Art’s Founder attended the The Straight A’s Institute with teaching artist Karen Erikson. During the four-day training, which was held at the Birmingham Museum of Art, participants learned to create arts based curricula that is consistent with Birmingham City’s School Standards.

The teaching artist covered a number of ways to integrate arts into almost any lesson plan, which would lead to better student engagement, stronger arts instruction and higher academic achievement.

Straight A’s (Arts Advance Academic Achievement) is a federally funded program that was created to integrate arts into elementary and middle school curricula. This is the first time a federally funded program such as this has been implemented in Alabama.

“The Straight A’s training was particularly helpful because of how it fits into Kuumba’s goals of using art as a tool to foster learning and self-esteem in elementary and middle school children,” said Deidre Clark.

Straight A’s is a joint partnership between the Kennedy Center, Birmingham City School District, and the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham.